Ubuntu 24.04 is now running on my BPI-F3. Will be working on a video for YouTube soon.

This should work for any version of Linux, this has only been tested with Ubuntu 24.04

Getting Started

Download the Bianbu Image and use your favorite tool to image it to micro SD card.

Download the Ubuntu Image Ubuntu 24.04 to the NVME (NOTE: you will lose all your data)

Imaging to the NVME can be performed a couple differnet ways. You copy copy the image from another system to your risc machine's SD Card, or use an image program like raspberry pi Imager or Balena Etcher. You can buy a USB to m.2 adapter which you can purchase on Amazon for about $20 dollars.

This boot has only been verified on this version of Ubuntu. It should work for all versions of Linux you just need to know which partition is root(/). After you've imaged Bianbu to the SD card. Re-insert it to your PC and mount partition. Run this command next.

sudo mkdir /mnt/sd

sudo mount /dev/sdd5 /mnt/sd
(or which ever drive letter yours shows up as. Mine shows up as sdd. if yours shows up as SDA then mount /dev/sda5). You can determine which drive it is by running the command (lsblk) Once mounted run the command to change directory.

cd /mnt/sd

Make a working directory in your home directory.

mkdir ~/work

Now copy the initrd-6.1.15 with the command below.
cp initrd.img-6-1-15 ~/work/

Download Copy the cpionew.sh Link below. Download the File here and copy it to your work directory. type this command to go there

cd ~/work

you should already have the initrd.img-6.1.15 in this directory along with the cpionew.sh type this command:

mkdir initrd-tree

type this command

cp initrd.img-6.1.15 initrd.gz

now uncompress the initrd with this command:

./cpionew.sh -u

this should extract the initrd to the initrd-tree directory Change to that directory with this command

cd initrd-tree

Download the init file located in the files directory. Replace the init in initrd-tree with the one you Downloaded. Go back one directory by typing:

cd ..

Now re-compress the initrd with this command

./cpionew.sh -r

Now run this command

cp initrd.gz initrd.img-6.1.15

with the SD card still mounted as above run this command

sudo cp initrd.img-6.1.15 /mnt/sd/

type this command

sync

and then type cd to change back to your home directory now unmount the sd card with this command

sudo umount /mnt/sd

remove the sd card and put it in the BPI-F3 machine and turn it on. It should boot to Ubuntu located on the NVME

If you need help let me know. Thanks Franco

Fixing the boot so it will always boot
https://gitlab.com/rkraevskiy/ubootpubkey/-/blob/master/README?ref_type=heads